The Tennessee Titans had quite the day at training camp on Tuesday, as not only did the team put the pads on for the first time, the Titans also saw a massive fights break out between a bunch of players.
The fighting began when defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons got into a scuffle with rookie and left tackle JC Latham, which reportedly led to Simmons throwing a punch at Latham.
Then, Simmons reportedly "bull rushed" left guard Peter Skoronski on the next play and a brawl broke out that saw a dog pile and punches thrown by at least outside linebacker Arden Key and offensive lineman Leroy Watson.
Simmons just swung at Latham after some pushing a shoving…refs said 98 would have been tossed in game. He’s back in for the next two and immediately starts a brawl. Sloppy. Simmons needs to lock tf in
— Buck Reising (@BuckReising) July 30, 2024
We didn't get video of the fight because taping wasn't allowed at that point in the practice, but multiple beat writers tweeted through it, including AtoZ Sports' Buck Reising, who was responsible for the tweet above.
First confrontation of full pads day. Jeffery Simmons and JC Latham locked up for a few minutes after a snap. Next rep Simmons bull rushed Peter Skoronski to the ground and Tyjae Spears ran by the pile. Arden Key and Leroy Watson threw a couple of punches in a small scrum.
— TURRON DAVENPORT (@TDavenport_NFL) July 30, 2024
Apparently, Big Jeff saw Reising's tweet and decided to confront the Titans beat writer after practice while he was doing an interview with cornerback Roger McCreary.
Check out the video below, but NSFW warning: Simmons uses naughty language (H/T @jjcoop_12 for the video).
— Jesse Cooper (@jjcoop_12) July 30, 2024
"I don't want to talk to you, you're a p----," Simmons said to Reising. "You do a lot of talking on social media!"
MORE: Did Madden NFL 25 forget Jeffery Simmons exists?
Head coach Brian Callahan addressed the fight after practice.
"It was the first day of pads, guys are cranked up," Callahan said, per AtoZ Sports. "They understand what it is. We reined it back in and we had no problems after that. I don't anticipate it being an issue. Fighting is not something we want to accept, it's not part of the rules of the game. I've explained that before and I'll explain it again. It's training camp, the first day of pads, (Jeffery Simmons) is trying to set a tone. Those things don't bother me so much as long as we know we've got to play within the rules and we've got to protect our teammates, and I think we've got it figured out after that."
"It is what it is, it's football," Callahan added. "I don't mind guys setting the tone with the intensity ramped-up and we've just got to understand that we can play to the edge and we can still play within the rules. And fighting is a penalty, it's usually an ejection, it hurts our team, we can't have that."
Jeffery Simmons is at the top of the list of people I would never want to mess with. Usually Paul Kuharsky gets the brunt of frustration from Titans players, but clearly it's Reising's turn this time around.
